What is selection?

  • (noun): A passage selected from a larger work.
    Synonyms: excerpt, extract
    See also — Additional definitions below

Selection

In the context of evolution, certain traits or alleles of genes segregating within a population may be subject to selection. Under selection, individuals with advantages or "adaptive" traits tend to be more successful than their peers reproductively—meaning they contribute more offspring to the succeeding generation than others do. When these traits have a genetic basis, selection can increase the prevalence of those traits, because offspring will inherit those traits from their parents. When selection is intense and persistent, adaptive traits become universal to the population or species, which may then be said to have evolved. Scientists who do experimental genetics employ artificial selection experiments that permit the survival of organisms with user-defined phenotypes. Artificial selection is widely used in the field of microbial genetics, especially molecular cloning.

Read more about Selection.

Some articles on selection:

Missouri Plan
... Court Plan, also known as the merit plan, or some variation) is a method for the selection of judges ... If the governor does not make a selection within sixty days, the commission makes the selection ...
GLAAD Media Award - Selection
... Media Award voters particiapte in the selection of Honorees from the pool of Nominees in each category via online balloting ...
On The Tendency Of Species To Form Varieties; And On The Perpetuation Of Varieties And Species By
... Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection is the title of a joint presentation of two scientific papers to the Linnean ... Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection the papers appeared in print on 20 August 1858 ... a condensed "abstract" of his "big book" on Natural Selection ...
National Radio Hall Of Fame - Controversies
... The online public selection of Focus on the Family in 2008 caused some gay rights leaders to protest the induction ceremony in Chicago on November 8, 2008 ... He lampoons the fact that the entire nomination and selection process appears to be controlled by one man, Bruce DuMont, who is also the sole authority appointing the selection ...
Types and Subtypes - Mechanisms of Selection
... Distinct from patterns of selection are mechanisms of selection for example, disruptive selection often is the result of disassortative sexual selection, and balancing selection may ...

More definitions of "selection":

  • (noun): An assortment of things from which a choice can be made.
    Example: "The store carried a large selection of shoes"
  • (noun): The person or thing chosen or selected.
    Synonyms: choice, pick

Famous quotes containing the word selection:

    When you consider the radiance, that it does not withhold
    itself but pours its abundance without selection into every
    nook and cranny
    Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)

    The books for young people say a great deal about the selection of Friends; it is because they really have nothing to say about Friends. They mean associates and confidants merely.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on.... The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.
    Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)